For many individuals, the Internet is an indispensable communications medium. Using the Internet, an individual can connect with thousands of separate sites that offer information, goods and/or services. Not only can an individual use the Internet to obtain information or to purchase products and/or services; the Internet can carry communications, in the form of electronic mail, between and among individuals anywhere in the world virtually instantaneously. A subscriber accessing the Internet establishes communication with a particular site by entering the corresponding Universal Resource Locator (URL). Thus for example, a subscriber on the Internet seeking access to the web site maintained by AT&T on the World-Wide Web would enter http://www.att.com. Other web sites are accessed by entry of corresponding URLs.
Rather than access a particular web site, a subscriber on the Internet or another IP network, such as a private Intranet, may wish to launch an application on the Public Switched Telephone Network. For example, a subscriber on the Internet may wish to communicate with a computer linked to the PSTN but not on the Internet. Alternatively, a subscriber on the Internet may need to access an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system available only through the PSTN. In addition, a subscriber on the Internet may want to access information in the PSTN (such as a personal phone list or other personal information) and may want to set up a call on the PSTN under the control of the Internet. In both instances, no mechanism presently exists to allow a subscriber to directly access an application available exclusively on the PSTN via an IP protocol network, such as the Internet.
In general, present day IP protocol networks respond only to URLs. Thus, a subscriber who wishes to launch a particular application on the PSTN or wants to access PSTN information must first log-off the IP network and then establish a connection directly with the PSTN to access the desired information or application. Logging off the Internet and then establishing a new connection with a PSTN to launch a desired application is inconvenient. Moreover, a subscriber, once logged off the IP network, loses immediate access to services such as electronic mail and the like.
Thus, there is need for a technique for enabling a subscriber on an IP network, such as the Internet, to gain access directly through that network to the PSTN to launch an application on the PSTN or to obtain personal information in the PSTN.